World Wise is a think tank that provides an expert compilation of International Development, Sustainability and Foreign Affairs stories that address some of Today's most pressing global issues.

On October 13, a group of hundreds of people gathered together to flee their impoverished home country of Honduras in a caravan headed toward the United States, seeking a better life for themselves and their families. That caravan quickly swelled to approximately 7,000 Central American immigrants as it passed north through Guatemala.

A new study on Civil War prisoners adds to the evidence suggesting that our parents’—and even grandparents’—experiences might affect our DNA. It found that the sons of Union Army soldiers who endured grueling conditions as prisoners of war were more likely to die young than the sons of soldiers who were not prisoners. In other words, it seemed like the stresses of war were getting passed down between generations.

2.3-million Venezuelans have left their country thanks largely to the gross mismanagement of what was once Latin America’s richest nation. The inept dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro has unleashed a crisis that could rival the European migrant crisis of 2015.

Earlier this month, Facebook announced it had detected and shut down more than 30 Russia-linked fake pages created as part of a campaign to influence the U.S. midterm elections. In case there was any doubt, Russia’s effort to influence American politics continues.

China has reportedly begun deploying flocks of drones disguised as birds to surveil its citizens. The drones have wings that flap so realistically they’re difficult to distinguish from actual birds. In fact, animals on the ground often can’t make the distinction, and even real birds in the sky sometimes fly alongside the drones.

Less than 24 hours after an astonishing joint news conference between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, in which Trump sided with Putin over his own intelligence agencies, former President Barack Obama finally did what his supporters have waited for him to do since he left the Oval Office.

One of the key exchanges in the Trump–Putin press conference in Finland doesn’t appear in full in the White House transcript, or at all in the Kremlin’s English-language transcript of the event. The Reuters reporter Jeff Mason asked, “President Putin, did you want President Trump to win the election and did you direct any of your officials to help him do that?” How exactly did Vladimir Putin respond to those pointed questions?

As President Donald Trump kicks off a bruising NATO summit, transatlantic relations are said to be in the grip of an unprecedented crisis. On multiple fronts—defense spending, Iran sanctions, trade, and immigration—the United States appears to be on a collision course with its European allies.

LOS FRESNOS, Tex.—For the ninth day in a row, a Honduran man named Cristian pleaded with officials inside the immigration jail here to tell him where his 7-year-old son is. The government separated them after they crossed the border illegally in mid-June, and Cristian has been asking for his whereabouts ever since.

One of the most appealing aspects of soccer is its simplicity—a ball, some open space, goal markers, and you can play. As the 2018 World Cup kicks off in Russia, with matches held in massive modern arenas, here is a look at the beautiful game in action in some smaller and more unusual venues around the world, including pitches built on a glacier, on a beach, floating in a river, made of straw, on a rooftop, and more.

The soccer World Cup, which began Thursday in Russia, could be perceived as a celebration of the world’s love for the beautiful game. It could also, as Boris Johnson, the U.K. foreign secretary, put it, seem like an “emetic prospect, frankly, to think of Putin glorying in this sporting event.” Indeed, the sporting aspect of the Cup notwithstanding, the tournament is yet another attempt by Russia to win respect, and perhaps rehabilitate its image, through sports.